Freedom of nation is expressed by its success in sports!
Iqbal Latif
World of cricket, is a world fair and honorable behavior. War country Afghanistan to play in ACC Trophy is major news, and another war country Iraq has recently qualified for Olympics, being one of the three nations in Asia to fill the coveted spot in Athens.
Why is so that Afghanistan and Iraq are now turning into nations where sports is seeing a boom, the global media is bent to emanate downbeat items for a change we can concentrate on few encouraging signs of recovery.
Cricket means fair and honorable behavior. In the days of the Empire, the English took cricket to the colonies as a means of instilling the gentlemanly values of fair play while administering a sound thrashing to the natives. These days, the former colonies - such as Australia, the West Indies and India beat English regularly.
The new addition to the world cricket is Afghanistan, it was never a colony and outside the sphere of British influence, a war torn country ruled by medieval clerics and nation that boasted mines and limbless youth has now made a great entry to world of cricket, a world fair and honorable behavior and undeviating result of changing priorities of nation as consequence of post 911 doctrine that of proactive engagement with constructive forces and reduction of destructive icons by waging a determined effort to eradicate them. It is no mean task. We should also not forget the way the Taliban had brutalized their own people - the way they had turned Kabul football stadium into a killing field where they would carry out their own executions and then hang people from the goalposts.
As Afghanistan enters the world of cricket under the new regime, no one should forgot the royal treatment meted out by Talebins to Pakistani footballers for crime of wearing shorts, the arbitrary punishment was based on indictment that Pakistani team incited the ‘carnal desires’ of Kandhar ‘ashna’ prone’ maliks.
Kandhar the guy capital of the world where even birds flew with one wing, other protecting the posterior and where, when driven around, ashna sit in the front passenger seat next to his lover under ‘Talibans’ treated sportsman a little differently..
“A team of Pakistani footballers on a rare tour to Afghanistan was arrested and had their heads shaved as a punishment for wearing shorts, a violation of the Islamic code laid down by the Taliban government. The players from the Young Afghan Club, based in the border town of Chaman, in western Pakistan, were dressed in a red strip and shorts for the invitation tour, the first visit by a Pakistani team since the Taliban took power four years ago.
Halfway through their third and final game against a local team in Kandahar on Saturday, armed Taliban religious police burst into the sports stadium and stopped the match.
The team manager and some of the reserves fled but 12 players were arrested. The raid started a stampede among the hundreds of spectators and several were injured.
After a night in the city jail, the players had their heads shaved, a mark of shame usually reserved for petty thieves, and the men were sent home.” What a change couple of years make, from limbless youth of Afghanistan and policy of castigation for playing sports the youth of Afghanistan possibly would be contesting the world cup few years from now!
War torn countries like Somalia dissipate under pressure of war, here we see a new phenomenon of reconstruction, sports and Olympic medals in old days of communism were sign of success of communist closed economies. Nadia Comaneci of Romania were heralded as success of the doomed system, today by that standard the very leftists and liberals should admit that recent success of Afghanistan and Iraq in reconstituting teams of sports is sign of great advancement.
Who could have imagined these collateral benefits, lives of nations are changing for good, long lost lands are coming back to normalcy; the terror in sports is now waning.
Few months from now Iraq will have the same future and will be a proud member of comity, of nations. Iraqi football team already has qualified for Olympic instead of death threats now resurgence of capability is emerging, out of all the Arab teams only one team qualified and that was Iraq, they beat Saudi Arabia 3-1 in a cliffhanger in Jordan. If sports rejuvenation is a sign of emergence of nation this is an ample proof of a strategy that is building hope. It is a far cry from the days if one can recall the draconian regime of Saddam Hussein and his sons…
“It was a qualifying match in Jordan, and at full time Iraq were drawing three-all against the United Arab Emirates. Arab League rules called for a penalty shoot-out. Abbas Rahim Zair walked up to the penalty spot with a prayer on his lips and his heart in his boots.
Any player knows the pain of missing a penalty, but for a member of the national team, it carried the certainty of ritual humiliation, imprisonment, and torture. Only three Iraqis dared to take penalties, and Zair was one of them.
"Many of the footballers refused to even touch the ball, but then we realised that if no one accepted we would all be punished," the midfielder said.
He missed. Two days after the team returned to Baghdad, Zair was summoned to the headquarters of the country's Olympic committee, the lair of Uday Hussein, eldest son of Saddam and the leading personality in Iraqi sport.
He was blindfolded, and taken away to a prison camp for three weeks. He shrugged: "End of story."
The sporting life, as described to the Guardian by four past and present players, was one where motivational lectures from Uday - as chairman of the Iraqi football federation - included threats to cut off players' legs and throw them to ravenous dogs. Missing practice sessions, even to attend a sick child or funeral, meant prison. A loss or a draw brought flogging with electric cable, or a bath in raw sewage. And always at the back of the players' minds was the knowledge that Uday was watching.
Although the torture of footballers was common knowledge in sporting circles, it evaded international scrutiny. Players described elaborate preparations to dupe Fifa investigators, who visited Iraq, with officials hiding those players still carrying the scars from recent beatings.
May be these news of hope and successes are all too less important for world to take notice. May be destruction and hopelessness sells far better and garner the utmost price. Sensationalism has its commercial benefits but when essentials of underlying growth of nations are inundated by myths the upside potential of reconstruction may surprise many a nay Sayers. |
